ABSTRACT
Critical realism is a relatively recent tradition in the philosophy of science that was originated primarily by Roy Bhaskar. It has been adopted and developed across a wide range of social science disciplines, where it offers a methodological alternative to both positivism and interpretivism. On the one hand, critical realists are oriented to the production of causal explanations but see these in very different terms than traditional positivists. On the other, they see interpretive work and constructionist arguments as important and useful as long as they are not taken to exclude recognition of other causal forces. The chapter outlines the core philosophy of critical realism then discusses its application to questions of structure and agency, social construction, social science methods, and political critique, closing with an account of some debates in and about the tradition.
